Pain and the social brain: the role of oxytocin in socio-emotional regulation of chronic pain

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Valery Grinevich
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 561551432

Chronic neuropathic pain, affecting both central and peripheral nervous systems, is highly prevalent and debilitating, impacting up to 8% of the general population and 25% of chronic pain patients. Despite extensive research over the past two decades, effective management options remain limited, with few medications proving efficacious. Pain is a complex sensation influenced by the brain's modulation of the body's nociceptive system, illustrating bidirectional brain-body interactions. Emotional disorders such as distress, anxiety, and depression are frequently accompanied by chronic pain, while chronic pain sufferers are predisposed to developing these conditions. Notably, social and emotional states significantly influence chronic pain development and outcomes, highlighting pain as a social phenomenon. The brain's "pain matrix," particularly "emotional centers" such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, plays a crucial role in pain perception. Non-pharmacological approaches targeting these centers are increasingly advocated. Social interactions strongly impact these emotional centers, underscoring the need to explore neurobiological mechanisms linking social behavior and pain perception in both humans and animals. Oxytocin, a neuropeptide produced and distributed within the central nervous system, modulates various behaviors and emotions, including social memory, anxiety, and pain perception. While oxytocin has demonstrated analgesic effects on acute pain in animals and humans, its direct role in the interaction between social behavior and pain perception remains unclear. Our hypothesis posits oxytocin as pivotal in mediating the interaction between socio-emotional states and chronic pain via its influence on the brain's pain matrix. Our consortium, comprising leading experts in oxytocin systems, social behavior, and pain research, plans to elucidate these neurobiological mechanisms using advanced chemogenetic, optogenetic, pharmacological and electrophysiological techniques. We aim to investigate how oxytocin release in different pain matrix stations affects socio-emotional states and chronic pain. Additionally, we will use sophisticated behavioral assays, employing the Spare Nerve Injury model in rats, to explore the reciprocal effects of chronic pain and social behavior and their modulation by OT. The human part of the project will examine the relationship between oxytocin receptor signaling genetic variants and pain perception in a lrage sample. Ultimately, this research aims to uncover the role of the brain's oxytocin system in chronic pain modulation and its influence on the interplay between chronic pain and social interactions. Our findings may pave the way for novel pharmacological and behavioral treatments targeting the oxytocin system, potentially alleviating both chronic pain and its associated psychological symptoms in the future.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Hungary, Israel, Norway, Poland
• Cooperation Partners: Privatdozentin Dr. MELINDA CSERVENÁK, Ph.D.; Professor Alexandre Charlet, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Ewelina Knapska; Professor Daniel Quintana, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Shlomo Wagner, Ph.D.